Gold Coast Tourism Statistics

Page last updated: 15 June 2021

How many tourists visit the Gold Coast each year?

Over 3.7 million visitors travelled to the Gold Coast in the year ending June 2020.1
  • This total was made up of 734 thousand international visitors and 3 million domestic visitors.
  • Visitors were down 27.4% when compared with the over 5.1 million visitors in 2019.

How much do tourists spend on the Gold Coast?

Visitors spend over $3.6 billion during trips to the Gold Coast in the year ending June 2020.
  • International visitors contributed $962 million while over $2.7 billion came from domestic sources.
  • Spend was down 27.9% when compared with the over $5 billion spent in 2019.

How many people visited Brisbane and the Gold Coast in 2021?

For the first quarter of 2021 (January-March), Brisbane and the Gold Coast received over 2.4 million domestic overnight visitors from both interstate and intrastate sources.
  • Visitors were up 9.2% when compared with the over 2.3 million visitors of the first quarter of 2020.

How much did visitors spend in Brisbane and the Gold Coast in 2021?

Overnight visitors spent over $1.81 billion during visits to Brisbane and the Gold Coast for the first quarter of 2021 (January-March).
  • Spending was down 1.1% when compared with the over $1.83 billion spent during the first quarter of 2020.

How many tourists visited the Gold Coast in 2019?

A total of 5.3 million visitors arrived on the Gold Coast in 2018/19. This included 4.2 million domestic visitors and 1.1 million international visitors.1

  • A total of $5.2 billion was spent by visitors to the Gold Coast in 2018-19.
  • $1.4 billion (or 26.9%) was spent by international visitors.
  • $3.77 billion was spent by domestic visitors.
  • The Gold Coast ranked 7th for overall expenditure out of all Australian tourist destinations.

Gold Coast International Tourism Statistics

  • The Gold Coast ranked 5th amongst the most frequently visited regions in Australia.
  • At $1.4 billion, the Gold Coast ranked 5th in terms of expenditure by international tourists. 
Data source: TRA. Image credit: Camper Champ
Data source: TRA. Image credit: Camper Champ

Why do international tourists spend less on the Gold Coast than other Australian destinations?

  • International tourists stay on the Gold Coast for an average of 9 nights.
  • This means stays on the Gold Coast are generally shorter than stays in other destinations.
  • A shorter length of stay means less is spent when visiting.
Data source: TRA. Image credit: Camper Champ

Visiting the Gold Coast Can be Expensive for International Tourists

  • The Gold Coast ranks 2nd for per night expenditure at $140 per night, following Tropical North Queensland.
  • This means more revenue is generated per customer per night; however, it could also be part of the reason for fewer average nights spent by travellers to the Gold Coast.
Data source: TRA. Image credit: Camper Champ

Top Source Markets

  • With a 26% share in the number of international visitors, China was the top source country for the Gold Coast in 2018-19, followed by New Zealand with 20% of the share.
Data source: TRA. Image credit: Camper Champ, Gold Coast

Gold Coast Domestic Tourism Statistics

  • The Gold Coast received 4.2 million domestic visitors in 2018/19.
  • At $3.77 billion, the Gold Coast was 6th in terms of domestic expenditure.

How many tourists visit Queensland each year?

Over 22.3 million travellers visited Queensland in the year ending June 2020

Gold Coast Camping & Campervan Statistics

  • The number of camping trips throughout Queensland has grown by 45.8% over the 10-year period from 2008 to 2018.2
  • In 2018 over 1.3 million overnight camping trips were made in Queensland.
  • Camping trips – including caravan, campervan, commercial and non-commercial camping – made up 13.9% of visitor nights for domestic travellers to Queensland in 2019 (year ending September)

Other Resources

Travel Statistics Resources

Global Statistics

References

  1. TRA: International Visitor Survey, 2019, National Visitor Survey 2019↩
  2. TRA: International visitor Survey, Trends 2019, National Visitor Survey, Trends 2019↩